It's always fun to try and see how far you can go in trying to fool gullible people, so I always enjoyed April Fools. The only difference this year is that apparently it's also some important corporate date, either that or HR was preemptively messing with us.

Or, if one falls for a prank, one is so uptight as to disallow laughing at themselves, thereby making it even funnier?

I seriously doubt one is human if one's only problem is getting one's underwear in a bunch over a day of hijinks meant to entertain.

Taking one's self too seriously can only lead to one becoming the president of North Korea.

But it isn't funny.

People who engage in April Fools pranks wrote:

Oh here's an outrageous lie that no one will believe because today is the designated day for telling unbelievable lies, aren't we fucking clever? No one will see this coming because it totally hasn't been done every sodding year for centuries by bloody everyone. No siree, it's completely original and the funniest thing since the dead parrot sketch. Not at all a waste of everyone's day, two days now thanks to internet allowing the propagation of worthless, unfunny "humour" across multiple timezones, four thanks to the idiots who think being a day early or late is a radical new take on a concept that was staler than microwaved crackers back when Greenwich was still entirely unknown in horology circles.

Seriously, April Fools wouldn't be funny if it was set on fire by a pack clowns with Monty Python themed incendiaries.

Or, if one falls for a prank, one is so uptight as to disallow laughing at themselves, thereby making it even funnier?

I seriously doubt one is human if one's only problem is getting one's underwear in a bunch over a day of hijinks meant to entertain.

Taking one's self too seriously can only lead to one becoming the president of North Korea.

But it isn't funny.

People who engage in April Fools pranks wrote:

Oh here's an outrageous lie that no one will believe because today is the designated day for telling unbelievable lies, aren't we fucking clever? No one will see this coming because it totally hasn't been done every sodding year for centuries by bloody everyone. No siree, it's completely original and the funniest thing since the dead parrot sketch. Not at all a waste of everyone's day, two days now thanks to internet allowing the propagation of worthless, unfunny "humour" across multiple timezones, four thanks to the idiots who think being a day early or late is a radical new take on a concept that was staler than microwaved crackers back when Greenwich was still entirely unknown in horology circles.

Seriously, April Fools wouldn't be funny if it was set on fire by a pack clowns with Monty Python themed incendiaries.

Or, if one falls for a prank, one is so uptight as to disallow laughing at themselves, thereby making it even funnier?

I seriously doubt one is human if one's only problem is getting one's underwear in a bunch over a day of hijinks meant to entertain.

Taking one's self too seriously can only lead to one becoming the president of North Korea.

But it isn't funny.

People who engage in April Fools pranks wrote:

Oh here's an outrageous lie that no one will believe because today is the designated day for telling unbelievable lies, aren't we fucking clever? No one will see this coming because it totally hasn't been done every sodding year for centuries by bloody everyone. No siree, it's completely original and the funniest thing since the dead parrot sketch. Not at all a waste of everyone's day, two days now thanks to internet allowing the propagation of worthless, unfunny "humour" across multiple timezones, four thanks to the idiots who think being a day early or late is a radical new take on a concept that was staler than microwaved crackers back when Greenwich was still entirely unknown in horology circles.

Seriously, April Fools wouldn't be funny if it was set on fire by a pack clowns with Monty Python themed incendiaries.

Grow a fucking sense of humor.

Leads to an interesting question. I'm a bit older, and IIRC you fall into that category as well. I for one concur with 'grow a f'ing sense of humor' myself. In addition to some of the internet shenanigans, which I admit most are a bit lame, I beleive some well crafted deception is quite fun to find personally. NPR and the BBC have been known to pull some pretty good ones. The fallout though, when these stories are incorporated into real world discussions and debate, once spotted is great fun.

I remember years ago hearing a story on NPR about New England and Maple trees. It was interesting to listen to while driving to work. I had forgotten it was April 1st and as I was listening offhand to the story, things stared to not line up and I had a WTF moment, only to realize this was one of their Easter egg stories.

OK, good chuckle. The payoff though was a couple years later I'm half listening to a local conservative go off about something about 'liberal' policies (I'm pretty liberal myself) on talk radio, and all the sudden the conversation goes off on a tangent using examples from the NPR story above. He goes on to craft this, at least to him, well reasoned and insightful diatribe and underpins his entire argument on an NPR joke. It was awe inspiring to watch this all take shape in the realization that this fellow had been duped by a joke so many years back. I literally started laughing in my car as each point was brought to bear on a joke that he completely missed. When I got home I respectfully sent him an email thanking him for one of the best laughs I've had in a long time (and I was respectful about it). Believe it or not I did get a message back thanking me for pointing out that yes, he indeed had apparently been had years ago, and that it might be indeed prudent of him to fact check his sources in the future. Good fun.

So my question is ultimately this, for haters or lovers of April Fools jokes, is it related to age? Pushing forty myself this year and I do like them.

Meh. There are occasional gems on the 'net, but all in all I think it's jumped the shark.

I can see how that could get annoying after a while.

I personally like April Fools day, it gives me a chance to exercise my deviousness and people occasionally come up with amusing things. Non-funny jokes/pranks/whatever happen, but that is hardly different from any other day of the year...

Or, if one falls for a prank, one is so uptight as to disallow laughing at themselves, thereby making it even funnier?

I seriously doubt one is human if one's only problem is getting one's underwear in a bunch over a day of hijinks meant to entertain.

Taking one's self too seriously can only lead to one becoming the president of North Korea.

But it isn't funny.

People who engage in April Fools pranks wrote:

Oh here's an outrageous lie that no one will believe because today is the designated day for telling unbelievable lies, aren't we fucking clever? No one will see this coming because it totally hasn't been done every sodding year for centuries by bloody everyone. No siree, it's completely original and the funniest thing since the dead parrot sketch. Not at all a waste of everyone's day, two days now thanks to internet allowing the propagation of worthless, unfunny "humour" across multiple timezones, four thanks to the idiots who think being a day early or late is a radical new take on a concept that was staler than microwaved crackers back when Greenwich was still entirely unknown in horology circles.

Seriously, April Fools wouldn't be funny if it was set on fire by a pack clowns with Monty Python themed incendiaries.

Did you know:

If you wiggle that stick up your butt around some, you might hit your prostate. I hear that feels good.

April Fools Day needs to exist as long as Think Geek keeps turning out stuff like this:

I saw a great April Fool's Day-joke linked on Twitter (I think Punk linked it) about a dude who lit a tyre fire in an old dormant volcano. He brought them there in secret and then lit everything on April 1st. The locals panicked.

That's a great prank. Introducing Smell Search and ribbing the competition (like Google and Microsoft are doing today) is just fucking pointless. Not to mention sites that don't do obvious tricks but you know there is one — which means you can't trust them at all for an entire day. Fuck those people in the ear.

I have to admit that George Takei's Facebook prank, where he mentioned that he was going to play Jedi Master Ceti Maru in JJ Abrams Star Wars: Galactic Empire movie, almost fooled me. I could see JJ doing that.

So you get caught out by some fantastical story, and didn't immediately twig 'oh yeah, April 1st'.

I realized when I opened my email in bed and saw the "Razer Naga Phone Upgrade" (gaming mouse) email, with a guy holding a mouse up to his head. So no, I remembered pretty quickly it was liars day, and to ignore most of the internet.